The fate of trade unions and our party are inextricably linked

Britain has the most restrictive anti-union laws in western Europe, and this government is about to tighten them further. We need to understand the effect this has: to increase inequality.

Professors Wilkinson & Pickett, authors of The Spirit Level, showed last year in an excellent Fabian Society pamphlet that the pattern of UK inequality “reflects first the strengthening, and then the weakening, of the labour movement during the 20th century”.

Now the Tories’ propose a minimum 50% threshold on union ballots – a legal hurdle that exists in no other ballot, either for public election or for any other democratic organisation.

The Tories say this is about democratic mandate. This is a deceit. As Thatcher’s Chancellor Nigel Lawson confessed in his memoirs, “a reduction in union power was an important aim of Conservative policy even though it was couched in language of checking abuse , democratising procedures and so on”.

We know they pursue the same agenda today, because they have rejected trade union proposals to boost turnout through secure workplace balloting.

Trade unions recruit in the workplace, organise in the workplace and disputes are formed in the workplace. And yet ballots must be sent by post to members’ home addresses and can only be returned by post. That is a nonsense.

When the Tories publish the Bill, Labour must table amendments to support workplace balloting to increase turnout. If the Tories don’t accept these proposals it will expose their agenda as purely mendacious.

No worker takes strike action lightly – no one forfeits a day’s pay without good reason, especially low paid workers  like the Unison members at Barnet Council or PCS members at the National Gallery, with whom I have recently shared a picket line.

British employees have less protections than their French or German neighbours, and that has allowed bosses to drive down wages, while profits have soared. This is systematically increasing inequality: wages for workers are effectively being converted into dividends for shareholders.

We need stronger collective bargaining rights in workplaces, and the right for trade unions reps to recruit  and organise to win recognition in the workplace.

As a party we need to embrace our affiliated trade union members – they deliver a more equal society with every negotiation and with every gain that results from industrial action, or often just the threat of it.

By coming together in their workplace, workers win a fair deal. By campaigning together in our communities we can win a better society. That’s why our party will always be inextricably linked to the trade unions: we share a belief that a better world can be created if we boldly stand up together.

Good leadership is about organising that collective power to achieve our shared goals, and that’s why I am asking for your support – because only together we have the power to right wrongs and build a fairer world.

As leader I would:

• End the public sector pay freeze
• Scrap Employment Tribunal fees
• Allow secure workplace balloting in industrial disputes
• Strengthen collective bargaining rights across key sectors of our economy
• Improve workers’ get a fair share by aiding trade unions’ access to workplaces to recruit and organise
• Ensure our Party stays rooted in our communities by involving all union members in democratic decision-making
• Always put party democracy and the trade union link ahead of short term media demands